This month, the Oregon State Bar observes its 70th anniversary.
But its roots go back nearly a half century earlier, with the formation
of its predecessor organization, the Oregon Bar Association. "Serving
Justice: A History of the Oregon State Bar," published this year
by the OSB, describes the colorful, sometimes checkered, chronicles
of what today is one of the nation’s most progressive state bars.

In "Serving Justice," you will discover with
pride that despite its Wild West, frontier origins, the state’s first
legal organization was led by regionally and nationally prominent individuals.
You also will learn interesting facts such as that all Oregon governors
before 1882 were attorneys, as well as when the first black lawyer
practiced in Oregon (1903, McCants Stewart).

The following excerpt from Chapter One of "Serving
Justice" describes the rough-and-tumble years leading up to the
formation, in 1935, of the Oregon State Bar.

• • • • •

A little band of eminent lawyers met in Portland in 1890
to form the Oregon Bar Association. Cyrus A. Dolph, the guiding spirit
behind this venture and its first president, led the effort to draw up
a constitution and bylaws, form an executive committee and plan the first
annual meeting, to be held in the following year. The association’s purposes
were "to cultivate the science of jurisprudence, to promote reform
in the law, to facilitate the administration of justice, to maintain
the standard of integrity, honor and courtesy of the legal profession,
and to cherish the spirit of brotherhood among the members thereof."1 Before
1890, 29 states and the District of Columbia had founded bar associations.

Present at the founding
of the Oregon Bar Association
was Cyrus A. Dolph,
the guiding spirit in
the movement to create
the Oregon bar and
the association’s
founding president.

On Oct. 17, 1891, President Dolph called to order the first
annual meeting of the association in the courtroom of Federal District
Judge Matthew P. Deady. Dolph was born in New York, came to Oregon in
1859, taught school for a time and was admitted to the bar in 1866. In
1883, after a stint as Portland city attorney, he became the senior member
of the law firm of Dolph, Mallory, Bellinger, and Simon. Like Dolph,
many of the others who attended this meeting were distinguished in blending
political and legal careers. Deady was Oregon’s most important judge
in the 19th century. George Williams was once attorney general of the
United States. Rufus Mallory had been a member of Congress and William
W. Thayer governor of Oregon. William S. Newbury had been mayor of Portland
and Erastus D. Shattuck a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.2

After the approval of the minutes of the previous meeting,
the delegates elected 28 new members, each of whom
had to have been a member of the bar for at least one year. Old and new
members then chose
officers for the coming year: Lewis B. Cox, president;
Charles H. Carey, secretary; and Osian F. Paxton, treasurer. They also
elected vice-presidents
for each of the seven judicial districts and four members
of the executive committee.3

Among those present
at the founding of the
Oregon Bar Association
was the Hon. Matthew Deady,
widely regarded as Oregon’s most important judge in the 19th century.

The morning session closed with an address by the retiring
president, who stressed three areas in which bar associations could contribute
to the advancement of the legal profession: to enlarge the minds of individual
members by giving them contact with other lawyers; to gain the benefit
of "fraternal criticism," by which "we shall be incited
to greater industry and zeal, and the standard of professional competency
will be thereby elevated;" and to "take united action concerning
legislation relating to our system of jurisprudence or affecting the
material interests of our State."

More specifically, and significantly in concert with the
first aim of the American Bar Association, Dolph called for the formation
of an Oregon Bar Association committee to submit to the state supreme
court "for adoption a course of study to be pursued by students
at law, and providing also for such a system of examination as will guarantee
the exclusion of all applicants not possessing requisite qualifications." The
president concluded his address by touching on other themes that would
engage the association throughout its life: legal ethics, excessive litigation,
disrespect for judges, appeals to opinion to influence litigation and
contingency fees.4

Following the presidential address and another by Lewis
L. McArthur on "The Formation and Adoption of the Constitution of
Oregon," the delegates debated and adopted four resolutions — all
directed to the Committee on Jurisprudence and Statutory Reform. The
first concerned Multnomah County’s reputation as a "divorce mill," where
100-fold more divorces were granted annually than in jurisdictions of
comparable population. The committee was to prepare a bill addressing
this problem for submission to the state legislature if approved at the
next annual meeting. The committee was also to study and report to the
next meeting (but not to draw up bills) on "the unnecessary frequency
of oaths and affidavits required under the existing laws of this state," the "fees
of officers connected with the official administration of justice," and
the election of a non-partisan judiciary. The delegates also thanked
the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads for— as was the custom
of the day — providing free transportation to Portland for out-of-city
delegates.

Setting Rules for AdmissionThe Committee on Legal Education and Admission
to the bar was concerned with upgrading and codifying
rules governing admission to the bar. Between 1892
and 1933, the association grappled with elevating the
standards of admission, flushing out individuals who
continued to practice with temporary licenses, requiring
that they either obtain permanent admission or be disbarred,
and preventing the admission of those "who are
immoral, dishonest" and entering the field "solely
for the money."5

At the 1892 meeting, the committee adopted rules that included:

 an examination committee composed of seven
attorneys who would determine all applicants’ "learning ability" and "moral
character;"

 documentation by applicants of college "or
other literary institution" graduation or the reading of law for
at least two or three years, verification of an ability to learn and
affirmation by two attorneys that they were "of good moral character."

 proof of U.S. citizenship.

The committee would also conduct an examination containing
both oral and written components and then report to the chief justice
of the Oregon Supreme Court whether to recommend or decline each application
for admission. If recommended, the applicant would then be examined by
the justices in open court on such topics as common law, the history
and constitutional law of England prior to the Declaration of Independence,
the history and constitutional law of the United States and the constitutional
law of Oregon. Applicants found qualified at the conclusion of this process
would be admitted to practice.

The committee also made provision for qualifying attorneys
licensed in other jurisdictions where common law prevailed by stating
that such applicants would be provisionally licensed for nine months
but then must apply for permanent license.6

The new requirements added to the burden of the three-member
court, which was already overworked as the result of increasing litigation.

At the 1903 annual meeting the Committee on Legal Education
and Admission to the bar proposed a solution, requesting that the supreme
court appoint a standing committee to assist with bar examinations. The
new committee would conduct examinations and endeavor to raise the standards,
as directed by the court. For applicants who did not hold a bachelor
of arts or equivalent degree from a recognized institution, the committee
would administer a special examination to determine their education and
knowledge.

Establishing Standards of ConductFrom its inception, the bar has endeavored to assure
that all those practicing law are of high moral character,
and in Oregon the Grievance Committee sought the "correction
of unprofessional conduct" and the "general
purification of the bar," a task that at first
included lawyers not associated with the Oregon bar.
One of the issues the committee addressed was advertising,
which though not illegal was considered unprofessional.7

Throughout the early years, members also were investigated
for such offenses as libel, "gross drunkenness and misbehavior in
court," misappropriation of funds, and perjury.8

At the 1895 meeting the Grievance Committee lamented the
necessity for disbarment proceedings, complaining that the investigations
were so time consuming and prosecution so long delayed that attorneys
could continue to practice long after they were deemed unfit. The committee
requested the adoption of measures or a statute that would secure the
prompt disposition of such cases, warning that if the bar were not diligent
in removing disreputable members, "its reputation will be so tarnished
that it will take years...to regain...."9

Underlying Weaknesses of the AssociationAlthough the Oregon Bar Association entered the
tumultuous decades of the 1930s with some record of
success, its entire history had been marked mainly
by lethargy and impotence. At the annual meeting in
1897, the president declared "next in order of
business is the report of the executive committee.
No report of this committee is on file, and it seems
none was read at the last annual meeting." The
record of two speakers’ addresses at the annual meeting
in 1904 was reported as: "These two addresses
were extempore, and the official stenographer who was
employed to report this meeting failed to transcribe
her notes, and hence it will be impossible to print
the addresses as is the custom." In the same year
the executive committee reported lugubriously that "it
had trouble in procuring the assent of the members
of the association to prepare papers for the annual
meeting." As late as 1928 the nominating committee
did not meet because it was impossible to gather the
members into a quorum.10

The Demise of the Association and the Creation of an
Integrated BarA lack of success in its legislative endeavors, the
efforts to reshape the public’s perception of the profession,
and the great national economic depression of the 1930s
combined to bring to fruition the demise of the Oregon
Bar Association and the creation of its successor, the
incorporated or integrated bar, in 1935.

The integrated bar movement in the United States was a
development of the early 20th century. In 1914 the Wisconsin Bar Association
considered the matter of an all-inclusive and self-governing bar; in
1915 the Nebraska Bar Association discussed the matter of an incorporated
bar and in 1918 the California Bar Association appointed a committee
to study the matter. The American Judicature Society provided the support
of a national organization for such efforts when it published a model
statute for an integrated bar in 1919.11

In Oregon the campaign for the integrated bar began in
1924 when association president Fred W. Wilson proposed that a bill to
incorporate the bar of Oregon be introduced into the state legislature.
Wilson said that it was time for Oregon to join the three states that
had adopted the integrated bar or at least join the 11 states that were
considering doing so. The president supported his case by stating that
the incorporated bar association would have a treasury to pay the salary
of a secretary (who was now a volunteer) and other expenses that were
now borne by its officers.

To further the cause, the Oregon Law Review carried
a long article in December 1924 by Herbert Harley, the secretary of the
American Judicature Society. Harley said there would be opposition ("certain
practitioners who sense an encroachment upon what they regard as their
private preserves"), but he hoped that this could be overcome by
clarifying the advantages of integration. These advantages he saw to
be: the greater power to influence legislation; the power to discipline
erring lawyers; opportunities to inform the public about the duties and
merits of the profession and the publication of a journal. To ease the
path to incorporation, Harley recommended that the new bar organization
not be empowered to examine for admission to the bar and not cause controversy
by taking stands on issues of public policy.12 The integrated
bar was debated at the annual meeting in the fall of 1924, but no action
was taken by the delegates.13

In spite of this rejection, the cause of integration advanced.
By 1928 the American Bar Association was holding conferences at its annual
meetings "to promote interest in and the work of the state bar associations." At
the annual meetings of the Oregon Bar Association, talks were delivered
by pro-integration lawyers from California, Idaho and Washington.14

Under the leadership of the dynamic president E. O. Immel,
who was working hard simultaneously on legislative and public relations
endeavors, the association at its 1930 annual meeting created "a
committee to study the incorporation of the state bar association and
report back to the next meeting as to its advantages and disadvantages."

The committee, with Oscar Hayter as its chair, reported
its progress at the annual meeting in 1931 and recommended that it draw
up an incorporation bill for consideration at the next year’s annual
meeting. The committee did present such a bill in 1932. The bill was
approved by the Oregon Bar Association and discussed at a meeting of
the Multnomah County Bar Association and at other meetings around the
state, but its smooth progress ended in the legislature. The incorporation
bill came to a vote in the Oregon House of Representatives in 1933, where
it passed with only one dissenting vote but was defeated by one vote
in the Senate.15

Fortunately, defeat did not engender discouragement. At
the 1933 annual meeting, President Arthur K. McMahon spent most of his
presidential address urging the virtues of an integrated bar and pointing
out that 20 states had adopted such a system. The major invited speaker
at this convention was Jess Hawley, who had shepherded the integrated
bar bill through the Idaho legislature. Hawley pointed out the ways in
which this had been done (including having the bill that had been bottled
up by lawyers in the Judiciary Committee sent to the more favorable Livestock
Committee as that body "had jurisdiction over all predatory animals").
The integrated bar committee urged that the bill be resubmitted at the
1935 session.16 All this persistence paid off, and the bill
creating the new organization was passed in 1935.

Endnotes1. There are no extant records of the Association
before the report of the first annual meeting in 1891.
These records contain the quotation about purposes, and
reveal the existence of a constitution, by-laws, executive
committee and Dolph’s presidency. Proceedings of the
Oregon Bar Association at Its Annual Meeting, 1891 (n.p.,
n.p., n.d.) 3, 24.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS"Serving Justice: A History of the Oregon State Bar," by
the late Gordon B. Dodds and Portland State University archivist Cathy
Croghan Alzner, can be ordered by writing the OSB at P.O. Box 1689,
Lake Oswego, OR 97035, or by phone: 503-684-7413, or toll-free in
Oregon (800) 452-8260, ext. 413. Softbound: $35; Hardbound $50 per
book, plus $5 postage and handling.